Every mail application — Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, Thunderbird, your phone’s built-in app — asks for the same handful of settings. Once you understand what they are, setup takes two minutes on any device.

What you need before you start

• Your full email address
• Your mailbox password
• The incoming server name (IMAP or POP3) and port
• The outgoing server name (SMTP) and port
• Confirmation that encryption (SSL/TLS) should be enabled — it should

IMAP or POP3?

Choose IMAP unless you have a specific reason not to.

POP3 made sense when storage was expensive and people had a single computer. Today it causes more problems than it solves.

What each setting does

• Incoming server — where your device collects mail from.
• Outgoing server (SMTP) — where your device sends mail through. Almost every “can receive but can’t send” problem lives here.
• Port — the numbered channel used. Secure ports are typically 993 (IMAP), 995 (POP3) and 465 or 587 (SMTP).
• Encryption — SSL/TLS protects your password and messages in transit. Always on, without exception.
• Username — usually your full email address, including the part after the @.
• Outgoing authentication — must be enabled, using the same username and password as incoming. This is the single most commonly missed setting.

Adding the account

1. Open your mail application and choose to add an account. The wording varies: “Add account”, “New account” or a plus icon.
2. Choose manual setup. Automatic detection frequently guesses wrongly for custom domains and leaves you with a half-working account. Look for “Other”, “Manual setup” or “IMAP”.
3. Enter your name and email address. Your name is what recipients see.
4. Enter the incoming server details. Server name, port and encryption exactly as supplied.
5. Enter the outgoing server details. Then find the authentication setting and enable it.
6. Enter your password and complete the setup.
7. Test both directions. Send yourself a message from another address, then reply to it. Only when both work is the account genuinely set up.

Common problems

If you’re stuck, contact our support team — we can walk you through it on the phone.

Phone mail apps hide most of the technical settings behind an automatic setup that often fails for custom domains. Choosing manual setup from the start saves time.

Before you start

Have your email address, password, incoming and outgoing server names, ports and encryption settings to hand. Setting up mail on a phone with only half the details is an exercise in frustration.

iPhone and iPad

1. Open Settings → Apps → Mail → Mail Accounts → Add Account. On older iOS versions this is Settings → Mail → Accounts → Add Account.
2. Choose Other, then Add Mail Account. Don’t pick one of the big providers.
3. Enter your name, email address, password and a description, then tap Next.
4. Select IMAP at the top of the next screen.
5. Fill in the Incoming Mail Server — host name, username (your full email address) and password.
6. Fill in the Outgoing Mail Server. iOS labels the username and password as optional here. They are not — enter them, or you won’t be able to send.
7. Tap Next and wait for verification. This can take up to a minute.
8. Check the advanced settings under the account → SMTP → Primary Server, confirming SSL is on and the port is correct.

Android

Android varies between manufacturers, but the flow is broadly the same in Gmail and most built-in mail apps.

1. Open your mail app and go to Settings → Add account.
2. Choose Other or Personal (IMAP). Avoid the automatic provider options.
3. Enter your email address and tap Manual setup rather than Next.
4. Choose IMAP as the account type.
5. Enter your password, then the incoming server details with the correct port and SSL/TLS.
6. Enter the outgoing server details and make sure Require sign-in is ticked.
7. Set your sync preferences — frequency, and whether to sync attachments over mobile data.
8. Send yourself a test message and reply to it.

Getting sync settings right

• Sync frequency. Push or every 15 minutes suits most people. Checking every 5 minutes drains the battery for little benefit.
• How much mail to keep. One to three months on a phone is plenty. Syncing years of mail wastes storage and slows the app.
• Attachments over mobile data. Turn automatic attachment download off if your data is limited.
• Notifications. Consider notifying only for your inbox rather than every folder, or you’ll be alerted about filtered mail all day.

Common phone email problems

Still not working? Contact our support team with your device type and the exact error message.

Outlook’s automatic setup works well for large providers but often struggles with custom domains. This guide covers manual configuration, which is more reliable and not much slower.

Before you start

• Your full email address and password
• Incoming (IMAP) server name and port
• Outgoing (SMTP) server name and port
• Confirmation that SSL/TLS should be enabled
• Outlook closed before you begin

Outlook on Windows

1. Open Outlook and go to File → Add Account. On a first run, Outlook prompts you automatically.
2. Enter your email address, then choose Advanced options and tick Let me set up my account manually. This is the important step — skipping it lets Outlook guess, and it usually guesses wrongly.
3. Choose IMAP as the account type.
4. Enter the incoming server name, port and encryption method exactly as supplied.
5. Enter the outgoing server name, port and encryption method.
6. Enter your password and click Connect.
7. Verify outgoing authentication. Go to File → Account Settings → Account Settings, select the account, choose More Settings, open the Outgoing Server tab and tick My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication, using the same settings as incoming.
8. Send a test message to yourself and confirm it arrives.

Outlook on Mac

1. Open Outlook and go to Outlook → Settings → Accounts.
2. Click the plus icon and choose New Account.
3. Enter your email address and continue.
4. If Outlook asks for a provider, choose IMAP/POP rather than letting it detect automatically.
5. Enter the incoming and outgoing server details with the correct ports and SSL enabled.
6. Click Add Account and wait for the mailbox to sync.
7. Send a test message to confirm both directions work.

Getting your folders right

With IMAP, Outlook sometimes creates its own local Sent, Drafts and Deleted folders rather than using the server’s. The result is sent mail that appears on your laptop but not your phone.

• Go to Account Settings → More Settings → Sent Items and Deleted Items.
• Set Outlook to save sent items in the server’s Sent folder rather than a local one.
• Do the same for deleted items.
• This keeps every device showing the same thing.

Common Outlook problems

Spam filtering catches the great majority of unwanted mail automatically, but no filter is perfect. A little care from you makes the filter noticeably better and, more importantly, keeps you safe from the messages that do get through.

Training your spam filter

• Mark, don’t delete. Using “mark as spam” rather than simply deleting teaches the filter what you don’t want. Deleting teaches it nothing.
• Rescue misfiled mail the same way. If a legitimate message lands in spam, mark it “not spam” rather than dragging it out.
• Check your spam folder weekly. Invoices, delivery notifications and password resets are the messages most often misfiled.
• Add regular senders to your contacts. Most filters treat known contacts more favourably.
• Be patient. Filters learn over weeks, not hours.

Recognising phishing

Phishing messages try to trick you into revealing passwords or banking details by impersonating an organisation you trust. They’ve become considerably more convincing, but the warning signs remain consistent.

• Manufactured urgency. “Your account will be suspended in 24 hours.” Real organisations rarely give you a deadline measured in hours.
• A generic greeting. “Dear Customer” from a company that knows your name.
• A sender address that doesn’t match. The display name is trivially faked. Expand the actual address and look at the domain carefully — lookalike domains substitute characters that read almost identically.
• Links that go elsewhere. Hover over a link before clicking and read the address that appears. On a phone, press and hold to preview it.
• Requests for credentials. No legitimate organisation asks for your password by email.
• Unexpected attachments. Particularly .zip or .exe files, or documents asking you to “enable macros”.
• Small errors. Odd phrasing, inconsistent formatting or a slightly wrong logo.

If you think you’ve been caught

1. Change the password immediately for the affected account, from a device you trust.
2. Change it anywhere else you used the same password. This is why password reuse is dangerous.
3. Contact your bank straight away if you entered banking details.
4. Enable two-factor authentication wherever it’s offered.
5. Scan the device for malware if you opened an attachment.
6. Tell us if it involved your Flexi Networks account so we can secure it and watch for unusual activity.

Protecting your mailbox

• Use a strong, unique password of at least 12 characters, not reused anywhere.
• Enable two-factor authentication where available.
• Be careful where you publish your address. Addresses posted publicly on websites are harvested automatically.
• Use a secondary address for competitions, downloads and shopping sign-ups.
• Keep your devices updated. Security updates matter.
• Don’t check mail on public Wi-Fi without care — and never on a shared computer.